There was war many years between the children of Israel and the Philistines.

And it came to pass while Saul was King that the Philistines gathered together a great army, and marched into the land of Judah against the Israelites, and encamped in a plain near Shochoh. So Saul also drew out his army and hurried forward, and occupied a hill overlooking this plain; whereupon the Philistines were forced to leave their position and to establish themselves on another hill across the valley of Elah from Saul’s camp.

While the armies thus faced each other, there came one day out of the ranks of the Philistines a champion named Goliath. Very terrible he was to behold, for he was of the race of those sons of Anak for fear of whom the Israelites under Moses had murmured and had been therefore condemned to wander forty years in the wilderness. And while Joshua had finally led them across the Jordan after the death of Moses, and had smitten the Anakim and overcome them, there had remained three cities where their seed still dwelt,—Gaza, and Gath and Ashdod; and it was from Gath that this Goliath had come with the invading army.

He was half as tall again as an ordinary man, something over nine feet. His brazen breastplate alone weighed as much as a man; on his head was a helmet of brass; and he carried over his shoulder a mighty spear which looked like a weaver’s beam and the head of which alone weighed twenty-five pounds. Brazen greaves were upon his legs, and he bore a shield of gleaming brass.

This daunting figure advanced boldly into the plain, between the two armies drawn up in battle array, and in a great voice cried out:

“Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? Am not I a Philistine and ye servants of Saul? Choose you a man for you and let him come down to me.

“If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.

“I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.”

Now this was quite customary in the olden times: many a great issue had been decided by the combat of two champions. Moreover, there were brave men enough in the army of the Israelites, for Saul had had war all his days, against the children of Moab and the Amalekites, against Ammon, Edom and Zoab; and when he had seen any strong or valiant fighter among his people, he had straightway taken him unto him. But at the sight of this huge, brazen warrior, his hardiest veterans turned pale and trembled—for was it not a saying passed on from father to son for many generations: “Who shall stand before the sons of Anak?”

So, among all those thousands there was not found one so much as to answer to the giant’s challenge. Which, when he perceived, he reviled them and returned to his own people.

The next day he came forth again, morning and evening, and the day after that, and each day following, always repeating his challenge in the face of all the force, and taunting them bitterly. Wherefore Saul was greatly troubled, for he knew well that this open fear of the giant would fight more overwhelmingly against his soldiers, when battle was joined, than the mighty Philistine himself and all his host. He offered, therefore, great riches to any man who would go forth against the challenger; whosoever should slay him should have the king’s daughter to wife, and his father’s house should be free in Israel. Yet even this could not prevail upon any to stand before the Philistine, so that for forty days he braved and insulted the whole army without response.

Now there were three brothers among those who followed Saul, Eliab, Abinadab and Shammah. They were sons of Jesse, who dwelt but ten or twelve miles from the battlefield in the hills near Bethlehem. This Jesse had a fourth son, David, who was but a stripling and tended his father’s sheep.

He was a ruddy youth, of fair gaze, and beautiful to look upon. So cunning a musician was he that when an evil spirit of melancholy had descended upon the king, one of his servants had brought the boy to harp to his master; and the youth’s skill in charming away this evil spirit had given him favor in Saul’s sight, so that he had kept him before him and made him his armor-bearer. But when the three older sons of Jesse had joined the army gathered against the Philistines, David had returned to his duties with his father’s flocks.

It chanced at this time that Jesse called David to him:

“Take now,” said he, “this bushel of parched corn and these ten loaves and carry them swiftly to the camp to thy brethren.

“And carry these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and see how thy brethren fare and bring me word again.”

So David arose very early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper and went as his father had commanded to the camp by the valley of Elah.

It was an easy journey for one who spent his days abroad with the sheep, and the sun was but lately up when he reached the encampment.

All was noise and confusion as he arrived, for both hosts were setting themselves in battle array, army against army. So the youth left his burdens with the keeper of the supplies, and ran in among the ranks until he found his brethren and said unto them: “Peace be with you.”

As he talked with them, the Philistine champion appeared on the opposite slope. According to his wont, he challenged the whole army and reviled them, while the men of Israel drew back, sore afraid as before.

David heard his insults, and heard also the talk of those who stood by: what great things King Saul had promised to any who might overthrow him, and how long his boast and defiance had gone unquestioned.

“What shall be done,” he inquired of his neighbors, “to the man that killeth this Philistine and taketh away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

They answered and told him what the king had promised: “So shall it be done to the man that killeth him.”

His eldest brother Eliab heard these questionings, and his anger was kindled against David. He turned upon him, saying:

“Why comest thou down hither? And with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride and forwardness: thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle.”

“What have I now done?” replied the youth. “Was there not a cause for my coming?”

He turned away and again asked the nearest soldier of the affair, receiving the same answer. And some one came to Saul, relating the words the stripling had spoken. Saul sent for him.

As soon as he stood in the king’s presence, David broke out, pointing to the distant figure of the giant:

“Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”

“Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him,” answered Saul; “for thou art but a youth, and he is a man of war from his childhood up.”

“Thy servant kept his father’s sheep,” urged the young man, “and there came a lion and a bear and took a lamb out of the flock.

“And I went out after the lion and smote him and delivered the lamb out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by the hair and smote him, and slew him.

“Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.”

When Saul saw the eagerness and confidence of this handsome young shepherd, he was reminded of the deed of his son Jonathan when, accompanied only by his armor-bearer, he had climbed up into the enemy’s garrison at Michmash, and slain twenty men within the space of half an acre, and started the rout of the whole army of the Philistines which had been about to overrun the land.

“Go,” said he, “and the Lord be with thee.”

So he armed David with his own armor and put a helmet on his head. And David girded on the king’s sword and tried to walk; but he found himself so unaccustomed to the armor that he said to the king:

“I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them.”

So he removed the armor, and set out in his shepherd’s clothes, with his staff in his hand and his sling hanging from his girdle. This latter was the weapon he knew, and it was by no means to be despised. The plain piece of leather with thongs attached to each end, by means of which a stone could be hurled, was perhaps the very earliest means of fighting at a distance; and it was the traditional arm of more than one nation of the Syrian region. Among the Benjaminites, when they fought with Israel, there were 700 chosen men, left-handed, every one of whom could sling stones at a hair’s-breadth and not miss; and an expert slinger had the advantage, against a warrior armed with sword and spear, of being able to deliver an attack long before he himself was threatened.

The youth walked to the brook and carefully selected five rounded stones of the right size, which he put into the wallet slung over his shoulder. Then, in the full sight of both armies, he advanced against the giant warrior in his gleaming harness, who stood brandishing his great spear and shouting his scorn.

Seeing David approach, he came forward, preceded by his shield-bearer. But perceiving only this fresh-faced stripling in his skin garment, he was filled with contempt at such an antagonist.

“Am I a dog,” he cried, “that thou comest to me with staves?”

Cursing the youth by his heathen gods, he shouted: “Come to me, and I will give thy flesh to the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field.”

Calmly David answered:

“Thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.

“This day will the Lord deliver thee into my hand; and I will smite thee, and take thy head from thee; and I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the assembly may know there is a god in Israel.”

Enraged at this insolence, the Philistine champion hastened forward to smite down this boaster with one blow.

But David ran towards him. And as he ran he took one of the stones and placed it in his sling. Whirling it about, he hurled it so shrewdly that the stone struck Goliath full in the forehead, burying itself in the skull.

Down crashed that giant bulk to earth. The shield-bearer fled aghast back to his own lines. Running up to his prostrate adversary, the youth drew the giant’s sword from his sheath, and, while the multitude looked on in awed silence, he hewed the Philistine’s head from his body.

At that the Israelites set up a shout which echoed from hill to hill. The Philistine host turned and fled in utter panic, while Saul’s men slaughtered them all the way to the gates of Gath, making great spoil of their belongings.

But David took the giant’s sword and placed it in the sanctuary of Nob, where it was to serve him in dire need, at a later day.

And Saul set him over all his men of war.